14 Graduation Quotes For That Special Day

A graduation, whether it be from high school or from college, is a momentous occasion in a person’s life and graduation quotes are a wonderful way to reflect on how special graduation day really is. These 14 graduation quotes do a great job of capturing what every graduate should understand and remember on this memorable day.

1. “There is a good reason they call these ceremonies commencement exercises. Graduation is not the end; it’s the beginning.” ~ Orrin Hatch

2. “You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.” ~ Tom Brokaw

3. “The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. “A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success.” ~ Robert Orben

5. “At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.” ~ Paul Freund

6. “During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. “Absolutely,” the professor said. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello. “I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.” ~ Joann C. Jones

7. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle

8. “Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.” ~ Epictetus

9. “The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things — the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.” ~ Samuel Johnson

11. “Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you’ll make a difference.” ~ Arie Pencovici

12. “The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth that it prevents you from achieving.” ~ Russell Green

Long and short, funny and emotional — some of the most inspiring and thought-provoking words have been spoken at graduations. These graduation quotes remind us that being educated means more than learning what was in the textbooks and that, even after graduation, one’s education really never ends.